PERSEPOLIS

The Story of a Childhood

and The Story of a Return
The Bicycle and Themes
This chapter opens with Marjane confessing
that her faith “was not unshakable.”

Marjane's newfound interest in dialectic

materialism

Religion- Lack of trust in God

Patriotism- Ready to fight for her nation
Children/Growing Up- She matures and
loses the innocence of a child
 Setting and character development
Setting
During the first volume of Persepolis, we see Marjane
in Tehran and her experiences there. During the
1980s when this book is set, Iran was having the
largest revolution in the country's history. Up until
1978, Iran had been run by a Shah, and they had been
involved in political dealings with other countries.
However, in the 1970s, the Shah, Mohammed
Pahlavi, in was unsuccessful in his diplomacy and
had lost his followers. Marjane's parents had been
protesting his rule and following a radical movement
to try and get him out of power.
Character Development
Marji is an exceptionally curious child and
she's not someone to conform to the
demands of society. She becomes
acquainted with the political vernacular
since her parents and family are political
activists. Marji also challenges the dress
code restrictions placed on women,
wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and jewelry as
a sign of protest. Marji is strong-willed and
very well educated. Both of these
attributes will serve her well at the end of
the novel.
 2 events of historical
signifance

2500 years of tyranny and

submission
Arab invasions from west
Mongolian Invasion east
Modern Imperialism
What did u find What was politically
interesting? incorrect
How would Marji's life without war?

Marjane would not have to go through such a hars

 Persepolis is derived from Greek meaning the Persian City. The main
plot this chapter explores the theme of toxic nationalism. Even
though there are two separate events going on in the chapter toxic
nationalism is what is centered in the chapter.

Title And Her Grandmother comes to visit. She tells Marjane that when her
husband was arrested, they lost all their wealth. She still took every

Themes
effort to make sure her family looked nice despite being in poverty.

That night, the family waits a long time for Marjane's father to come
home from a protest. Marjane fears he is dead.
He makes it home alive and uninjured. He tells the story of what
happened at the demonstration, but Marjane is too young to
understand.

She decides to educate herself to better understand, and she starts

reading lots of books.
Main events of personal
significance
01
Her grandmother’s story made
her realise her family’s
condition because of the Shah.
The things her mother had to
go through while growing up or
how they spent life in poverty,
because all this got her
thinking of the Shah’s rule and
how it affected her mother’s
childhood.
02
Secondly she did not
understand why her parents
laughed at the fact of the old
woman joining the protestors.
She felt that she needed to
have more information of the
revolution and philosophy of
her culture.
 Politically Incorrect
Events
When her grandmother was telling her the
story of the Shah’s rule she learned how
Shah had no knowledge of managing the
state or have any idea on how to run a
nation, the only thing he knew was how to
manipulate the public in the name of
religion, he visited the grave of Cyrus the
great who ruled the ancient world just to
show he had knowledge about their ancestry
and was doing it for religion.
04
When her father was clicking pictures he saw a group of
revolutionists carrying out a young boy’s corpse who had
been killed by the army. They were shouting slogans and
calling him a martyr. At the same time an old man was
being taken away on a stretcher and the revolutionists
carried him too and even after finding out that he died of
cancer they called him a martyr just to support the
revolution which I though was incorrect in the political
sense to use any casualty as a weapon of the revolution,
and more so that the widow that told them about his
death also supported this.
 How would Marjane's Life be
without certain events

Without her finding out about her Grandfather being a prince and
him being over thrown she would not have had a clear political
opinion at all. Without her father telling her the story of the
revolutionists using every casualty as a weapon she wouldn't be
motivated to read more books and take an active interest in the
revolution.

Thank You